The SEC has been dominant the last decade. Not only have they won the last 7 national championships, but have been crazy hot on the recruiting trail. Usually we are talking about SEC powers Alabama, Florida, Georgia, LSU, Auburn, and new addition Texas A&M.
Ole Miss has usually been a bottom dweller in the SEC. They have been middle of the pack at best. In coach Hugh Freeze's first year at the helm Ole Miss went 7-6 overall and just 3-5 in the SEC. Just a few years ago Hugh Freeze was coaching high school football. yes, HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL. As you may know, coaching in high school is just a bit different than coaching in the SEC.
Despite not very much success on the field, Ole Miss currently holds a top-15 class nationally. The class is headlined by 4-star defensive end commit Elijah Daniel and 5-star Wide reciever commit Laquon Treadwell. Ole miss is not done by any means. They are also the front runners for the consesus number one overall propect Robert Knemdiche. Now, Laremy Tunsil to Ole Miss is a "done deal". Those are 2 of the top-5 players in the country. it would also be a surprise for Ole Miss not to land 5-star safety Antonio Conner. Chris Jones, the number 2 overall player on 247 sports, is also considering flipping his commitment from Missippi State to Ole Miss.
If all goes as planned Ole Miss could very well land a top-5 class. This just proves that the SEC is on another level. Could a Big 10 team ever do this? No way. Wisconsin has been to 3 straight rose bowls and their classes havent even broken the top 40. Indiana? Illinois? even Michigan St. would never put a top 3 class together even coming off a national championship. Ole miss might do it coming off a 7-6 season.
Just how big of a difference is it between the SEC and the Big 10? Well, not only can a 7-6 SEC team under a 1st year head coach get a top-5 recruiting class, but they can poach the head coach of a Big 10 power. Wisconsin, coming off 3 rose bowl appearances, some how lost their head coach to an Arkansas team that is in turmoil. Sure the money was better, but this just proves the lure to the SEC is just too good to pass up.
I was wondering for few sec why you sound like Hoke.
You know, i'm going to laugh if Ole Miss is still around .500 in 2 years.
"YOLO" = I'm about to do something extremely ignorant/stupid & I need an excuse to do it.
when*
This may be a bit more of a fluke than anything else. I'm not sure what the Ole Miss coaches have been selling (and clearly it's working this year), but it very well may just be a new coach talking big and getting guys to believe they can do what has never been done/make waves in the SEC sort of thing. I would not be surprised if they go down the Florida State route with all of this talent, it goes there and you never really hear from it again. We'll have to wait and see what Ole Miss does on the field and then with their next recruiting class to see if this is anything to be taken seriously.
The knock on the B1G is valid though, none of the upper-mid level teams and downwards seem to be anywhere near the correct recruiting capacity. Is it lack of shock and awe? Lack of money for facilities/coaches? Who knows, but clearly B1G coaches cannot get recruits excited and willing to take a chance on their teams, while Ole Miss is pulling off some crazy stuff here. What is this voodoo that they do do so well?
Yeah, I remember when Ed Orgeron was the next big thing in the SEC too.
Winning in February is nice. Let me know when Ole Miss wins when it counts.
The most "loud mouth, disrespect" poster on 11W.
I personally differ a bit in my opinion. Yes, it makes Ole Miss stronger (and perhaps you can say the SEC in general), but if he goes to Ole Miss it means he isn't going to Bama or UGA, which I would have seen as a greater hit to us. These moves will take Ole Miss from "meh" to "very solid," but I don't think it takes them to championship quality, not without another stellar class in 2014. Whereas Tunsil to Bama would make them even more unbeatable than they already are. Same with the addition of Nkemdiche.
This move makes the SEC more talented, but doesn't make their elite top tier any better--which is what I'm worried about as an OSU fan who could have his team playing against Bama/LSU/UGA/FLA in a BCS Championship Game in the next few years. The way the B1G regains its reputation is by beating the best of the SEC for a BCS title, not by beating the mid-range. So what Ole Miss does only matters to me so much as how it affects Bama/LSU/UGA/FLA. Just my 2 cents.
+1 agreed. Keeps some studs away from Bama
I have a feeling that Ole Miss seems to be doing "too good to be true". We shall see.
I agree. I think this remarkable transformation can be chalked up less to the power of the SEC and more to the power of $$$. Of course, I'm just a guy on the internet. But it's like Urbz said -- when something seems too good to be true it probably is.
To me all the matters is coaching in college. You can have great players but if you want to win at a top level you need top level coaching. Look at SC right now with 5* after 5* coming but they lose to Oregon and Stanford because Kiffin is a joke. If the B1G wants to be great again they need to start hiring and paying top coaches. Wins will follow after that.
Seconded
Motion sustained.
WHAT?? top-level coaches are more important than top-level players??? That is BLASPHEMOUS! that is egrigous!
ANY coach in the entire country will tell you that you need players more than coaching. USC is a completely different story. yes, they had top talent, but they had no depth. Lack of scholarships killed their depth in the trenches, they had no chance against physical teams.
And ask GENE CHIZIK about players being more important. CAM NEWTON made gene chizik. are you kidding me? players are way more inportant. child, please
"limitations, like fears are often just illusions"
-Michael Jordan, the greatest athlete of all time
A coach can win a game. Players win a championship
Having a great coach is essential to getting the good recruits.
Some players can make a coach look great (Cam Newton), some coaches can limit the potential of a team (Lane Kiffin and more recently Mack Brown) and some teams win without blue chippers (K. State, TCU to some extent Va. Tech.).
I agree that you need good/great players but you must have a solid coach. Chizik had talent in Auburn he just wasn't up to snuff.
A misfire on a recruit may hurt depth or limit a team for a year if it is a QB. A bad hire at coach can put back a program years (Rich Rod, Charlie Weis & company, Randy Shannon). Thus, I believe the right coach is paramount to the right recruits because the right coach will get the right talent, whether that is *5 or diamonds in the rough, or guys that fit a system.
Where was UF without Urban? Bama without Saban? SC without Carroll? Oklahoma without Stoops? Those programs were mired in mediocrity. These hires are what brought those programs back to glory.
South Carolina is good because of Spurrier, LSU because of Miles. Arkansas was a solid program under Petrino, take him away and look what happened. Jim Mora in a year has made stides at UCLA.
At OSU, we have been blessed to follow a great coach Tressel with an even greater one in Urban. Heck, look what Urban did with pretty much the same team that went 6-7 the year earlier.
Players are important, coaches are essential.
Exactly. Nothing more to add to that.
I guess that is why Tennessee, USC, Miami, Florida State, Texas (Teams with regularly top 10 recruiting classes) are always playing for the national championship. I'm not saying good players don't help but having great players without a coach to put them in the opportunity to make plays you aren't going to win. This is especially true in college when a good player is only going to be in a program for 3 years. There is a reason the same teams win each year (Urban, Saban, Miles)
Yup, forgot about Florida State, definitely underachieving with the talent they have.
It would be nice to beat Bama in recruiting in February, get Vonn Bell, but that doesn't mean we would beat them in January. Albeit it is an important step.
Great coaches, coach up their talent. Look what Warinner did with our OL this year. It was beautiful. Conversely, look what Bollman did with our OL.
Lastly, consider how talented our Bucks were in the 90's, we had no business losing to SCUM like we did. Definitely should of had a title or two in there (93, 96, 98). But while Cooper was a superior recruiter he still underachieved on the field. Maddening.
top-10 classes are irrelevant. i dont even care about the rankings.
"limitations, like fears are often just illusions"
-Michael Jordan, the greatest athlete of all time
Then why did you write thread about Ole Piss's highly rated recruiting class?
An angry fan...rooting for an angry team...led by angry coaches
because it proves the SEC lure is too tough to turn down for some. I dont care about rankings, but it doesnt take a genius to see L.Tunsil, R.Nkemdiche, L.Treadwell, C.jones are elite talents. I dont care what ESPN, Scout, Rivals say, i care what i see and i see those guys as elite.
"limitations, like fears are often just illusions"
-Michael Jordan, the greatest athlete of all time
So, on the same note tOSU and Michiscums' top ranked classes prove the allure of the B1G is unrivaled for some. Would you be considered a recruiting genius or just opinionated
An angry fan...rooting for an angry team...led by angry coaches
How the hell can you say Top 10 classes are irrelevant? Go to Rivals and look at the last five years for team rankings. You'll find Alabama has finished, 1,1,5,1,1. So don't tell me Top 10 classes do not mean anything.
Take it easy, Nick. Nobody's saying you can't recruit. Dfresh is just pointing out that coaches like Urban, yourself, and a few others can actually develop players.
An angry fan...rooting for an angry team...led by angry coaches
I think Kiffin could be the next Gerry Faust @ ND. Remember him?
"Here officer, hold my beer while I find my license."
What up DB?
if the BCS were continuing in perpetuity, i would be more concerned about this. 1) mi$$i$$ippi is not going to win a national title, and 2) an undefeated or one-loss B1G champ OSU is going to be selected for the four-team playoff nine times out of ten regardless of how terrible the B1G is perceived to be. seeing tunsil go to ole mi$$ instead of UGA (actual legit title contenders) or TTUN (for obvious reasons) is great news IMO. the way i see it, the more great players that go to ole miss, the less great players that go to bama, LSU, UGA (real title threats).
the kids are playing their tail off, and the coaches are screwing it up! - JLS
For a lowly school like Ole Miss to come out of nowhere and all of a sudden land all these top recruits sounds way too fishy to me!
Somebody's gettin paid!
"Because I couldn't go for 3"
Its Robert Nkemdiche not Knemdiche
Right. /:
"Here officer, hold my beer while I find my license."
Let's see if Ole Miss has the infrastructure, in the way of a coaching staff, to hold this class together. I am dubious.
This is similar to OSU in b-ball (as a non-basketball powerhouse several years ago) landing Oden, Connelly, Cook and company (3 NBA 1st rounders)...out of high school all of the Thad 5 were in the high school top 100...for most of the decade before we didn't have any top 100 or any high school McDonald All Americans. I know O'Brien said he wanted 4 year guys, not 1 and done guys but we rarely landed any o the top on state/Ohio kids...now we have McDonald All-Americans who don't play much into their sophomore season.
D. Anthony
conley...
mark may wins douchebag of the year... again
Every conference game Ole Miss wins is a loss for some other SEC team - Bama, LSU, Auburn, Tex AM, Ark, Miiss St, sometimes FLA, UGA, Tenn - which means that coaches at those schools will get fired. The SEC arms race will soon overheat and then crash & burn because there's not enough wins to go around to satisfy all the insatiable demands.
Yea, but all the talking heads in the Media will say that the 4 loss SEC team is better than the 1 loss B1G team because they played in the SEC. A little drastic yes, but I wouldn't be surprised to see 2 loss SEC teams in the playoffs over a 1 loss B1G team should that happen.
That's an excellent point. But the coaches of the SEC programs with 3 or 4 losses that narrowly miss out on making the playoffs one year, after not making it a few years in a row, with maybe a 5 or 6 loss season thrown in for good measure (because the SEC is so tough) will . . . get fired!
Ole Miss will need more than 1 elite class to be relevant, in fact I think they'll need 3 or 4, just for depth purposes. Talented kids go to schools that aren't good all the time though. We saw it with Diggs last year, and Quick this year(though Louisville is being touted as the next big thing for winning a bowl game).
If we signed the #1 Wr, OT and DE I would be nervous and we are perennial top 5 in the recruiting rankings. Something is up
A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men
Wasn't one of their recruits just flashing cash. their ballon will pop soon. Their are cycles in everything
Wherever you are, there you be!
LOLZ....target...meet coach freeze' back...come on man, we all know its dirty
I have a few reason into why they are recruiting soo well and it's on the bank account.
Typically I don't go into all the speculation, but something about this just STINKS! I mean treadwell is on twitter flashing a bunch of hundred dollar bills, they land him, the #1 tackle, and #1 overall (possibly), ole miss is doing it dirty.
Just a life long Buckeye fan wanting to talk to other lifelong Buckeye fans. Our honor defend, we will fight to the end for OOO HIIII OOOOOO!
It's the new weight room down there LOL
I'll say it again.......Ole Miss goes on probation in 3....2....1
Classic lol...I mean we all know ole Miss is a serious BCS championship contender lmao! Boosters stepped up this off season..
I heard Hugh Freeze is the only coach in the SEC that makes his players go to class...
"I like to kick Michigan's ass and chew bubble gum, and I'm all out of gum."
Ole Miss has a coach named Kiffin on staff. Following the blood lines:
great recruiting, probation, run away
By the time the NCAA is done investigating themselves, then trying to wrap their minds around the mystery case of Nevin Shapiro (that's a tough one, hard to gather evidence in that case), and then deals with Willie Lyles, maybe throw Auburn in there, Freeze has at least 3 good years to turn Ole Miss into legit Music City Bowl contenders. And I'm sure he's not paying the players to go there, that's not what they do in the SEC. They pay the dads. Those kids are completely oblivious, they just love the welcoming, tolerant environment that Ole Miss has been known for since Colonel Reb roamed the endzones and Dixie flew over the stadium.
its all about the benjamin's baby
mark may wins douchebag of the year... again
Wasn't old miss a part of the whole money to play thing with cam Newton?
I think it was Miss. St. who reported to the NCAA that Newton's dad asked for circa $160k for Cam to attend.
USC can recruit 5 star players too...
but they still suck....
so recruit all you want, your still not going anywhere...
Ole Mi$$ ~ take it to the bank!
Reminds me of all the movies where a group of bad guys knock off a bank and start spending it all at once on cars, coke and strippers, attracting the attention of detectives who realize that the guy who for the past 10 years has been a gas clerk attendant now has a Ferrari.
The last win Ole Miss had that was of any consequence was beating eventual national champ Florida in 2008. I also think they won the Cotton Bowl that year beating Texas Tech which were also in the NC hunt for a brief period. After that season I remember thinking to myself, "that had to be a fluke for Ole Miss" and guess what? it was.
Now if Ole Miss starts landing top 5 classes every year the chances of them being improved do increase, but as said before, Lane Kiffin has had the same thing and look what they've accomplished (i.e. nada)
"Sherman ran an option play right through the south" - Greatest.Civil.War.Analogy.Ever
I'm not sure why some of us are jumping on the bandwagon of assumption that Ole Miss is paying players. How soon we forget how annoyed and irritated we would get when other's would make blind assumptions about our Buckeyes during our scandal last year. For all we know, hard work by the coaching staff and a bond amongst the recruits, is what lead to this great class. At this point, without any facts to state otherwise, it's unfair to call this class dirty.
Because you have a school without a winning tradition, no big name coach, and sub-standard facilities, coming out of nowhere to land alot of very highly ranked recruits with no known ties to the school. It doesn't pass the smell test!
"Because I couldn't go for 3"
Does Ole Piss have substandard facilities? Seriously I don't know but heard otherwise.
A lot of ppl said the same thing about us.
A lot of people said we don't have a winning tradition, a big name coach, or up to par facilities? What?!
Noooo, I was referring to the comment about not passing the smell test...which is the exact same thing many others said about OSU, when in fact much of what was reported was not true.
totally agree man. thats a great point
"limitations, like fears are often just illusions"
-Michael Jordan, the greatest athlete of all time
I truly do not understand this post. A kid from Florida goes to a SEC school is bad for the B10? What did you think he was going to do? In that case Damon Webb staying up North and playing for Ohio State is a bad thing for the SEC.
did you even read it? its bad because a 7-6 SEC team is more relevent than a big 10 team that has been to 3 straight rose bowls i never said anything about laremy Tunsil's proximity. he just happens to be the latest recruit they got. but Elijah Daniel, Laquaon Treadwell, and others are right in the heart of Big 10 country.
"limitations, like fears are often just illusions"
-Michael Jordan, the greatest athlete of all time
And Joey bosa is from the heart of SEC country...
South Florida is not really SEC country, it's a hodge podge of former Northerners and Midwesterners, with alot of Haitians and Cubans mixed in. It would be interesting to see the numbers (if anybody with some time on their hands wants to do the research) but I would bet more South Florida kids play in the NE or MW than end up playing for the Gators.
"Because I couldn't go for 3"
Yes, the population of South Fla is more motley than Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, I used to live there. But a lot of "SEC" talent resides down there. Geno Atkins, from my Bengals, and a former UGA player, is from Miami.
The fact that the SEC recruits players from the Midwest just shows the talent that resides here. Deshawn Wynn, RB from UF's 06 championship team, Cincy. Mark Ingram, 1st Bama Heisman, Flint Michigan. Spencer Ware, LSU RB, Cincy. What needs to happen to retain this talent, and then poach stud players from the South, like the SEC does with the Midwest, is the BIG needs better coaches/recruiters/more dedication to winning. Kinda like how Urban is doing at OSU right now.
Looks like there are 21 current Gaturd players from south Florida. Is S E C, S E C, the same in espanol?
An angry fan...rooting for an angry team...led by angry coaches
Ole Piss is not more relevant than Wisconsin.
Agreed. They went 7-6. Getting recruits in February does not make a team relevant, winning games in the fall does. I'm struggling to understand the point of this thread
My impression of Ole Miss was that it catered to the wealthier white families of MS, although this has been changing over the past two decades. The rebel is still their mascot, a remnant of the civil war. The campus may be charming and the athletic facilities decent (stadium holds 60K, 10-yr old indoor practice facility), but drawing the best athletes in the south for a top recruiting class? They have not been a traditional football power and have lived in the bottom half of the sec for a long time.
Usually Elite players from the Midwest who want to play in the SEC will select Bama, LSU or Florida.....NOT Ole Miss, hence the fishy smell.
The guy thats chaparoning recruits during their OV's at Ole Miss looks familiar......
An angry fan...rooting for an angry team...led by angry coaches
That's what years of saving money for a payoff fund will do for you!
Class of 2010.
It is the old money in the south that says everyone else has bought there National title so why not us.